Latest news with #cryptography
Forbes
16 hours ago
- Science
- Forbes
Friederike Ernst: Using The Internet To Empower People And Communities
Friederike Ernst is an Ivy League physicist, co-founder of Web3 company Gnosis, and a mother of four ... More children under 10. At the age of 12, Friederike Ernst's father handed her a copy of theoretical physicist Simon Singh's The Code Book, sparking a lifelong interest in cryptography. The gift was prescient; Friederike went on to study physics to post-doctoral level at Stanford and Colombia, before transitioning to the world of tech. 'I have always loved building things. I could have been a very happy carpenter,' says Friederike. 'I enjoy being in a place where I can shape things, and the next iteration of the internet, known as 'Web3' or the decentralised web, is one of the areas where we can create a better society for all.' Through our conversation, one theme came through consistently - an engrained distrust of authority and the idea of empowering people with agency. That is the fundamental value that underscores her mission-driven work in the tech space - creating the infrastructure that gives power and autonomy back to people, rather than to huge corporations. 'Labels really don't matter' - the changing face of tech for women The businesswoman in glasses standing near the display At 22, she was the only woman in her class, but she says it's rare to be the sole woman these days: 'We've made tremendous progress. We don't need to get to 50:50 representation in every field - it's true that generally speaking men and women have different interests - but a certain level of diversity is important'. She adds that as the only woman, there is a burden to prove yourself not just on your own behalf, but as a representative of women everywhere. Today, Friederike is a mother of four children aged between one and nine years old, and she challenges the idea that tech is a hostile space for women. 'In the beginning, they can underestimate you, but I feel really appreciated for my contributions. Some say it's not a good place for mothers but I haven't found that to be the case. If you're smart, driven, and making a contribution, labels really don't matter.' Power (and profit) to the people Growing up in Germany, Friederike's values are shaped by counter-cultural cypherpunk ideologies grounded in resisting authority and unchecked capitalism: 'I'm a firm believer in agency, just give people the right tools and they can achieve what they want to.' That's what appeals to her about working in Web3, where decentralisation, privacy, and user ownership are prioritised. At Gnosis, she works on developing the infrastructure needed to make that happen across a diverse range of applications and sectors. She describes Web3 as a do-over of the early internet that allows for shared agency. 'The internet was initially used for a lot of peer-to-peer interactions. Over the last 30 years, a lot of that power has been centralised to accrue value and power to the same 10 companies. Google probably has access to your search history, correspondence, and location - that's an incredible amount of information - and then they target you with related ads.' What if we could have similar services without compromising on privacy? Why should we accept that this is the quid pro quo for access to online tools and services? Reimagining finance for everyone Concept of decentralized internet. Wide banner. WEB 3 technology concept. WEB 3.0 3d rendering.. Friederike explains that the principle of shared ownership, where communities, not corporations, hold the value they help create, can be applied to money and finance. At its foundation, Web3 is a neutral technology that could be steered in vastly different directions. 'Web3 is a base technology; an infrastructure. It can be used to create a utopia, but it can also be used to build an extremely effective surveillance state,' one advocate said. 'We need to ensure that doesn't happen, and that privacy is normalised again.' This is where Gnosis, the company she co-founded, comes in. Gnosis is building the digital tools and systems needed to make financial services more accessible, fair, and decentralised. The idea is simple: instead of profits going to a handful of big banks, tech companies, and intermediaries, the benefits should flow back to the users who actually create the value. 'We're building the foundations for a more open, equitable internet — but there's still a long way to go,' she says. 'In an open financial system, everyone should have equal access to opportunities, no matter where they live. Right now, it's incredibly difficult for people in some countries to hold foreign currencies or invest in global markets. But that kind of access is essential if we want a fairer world.' Traditionally, banks have held a lot of power. But today, new technologies make it possible to replace that middleman. Thanks to blockchain, a secure, shared digital ledger, money can now move directly between people without needing a central authority to oversee it. Friederike said: 'Bitcoin was the first example of this. It started as a form of digital cash that people could send to each other without going through a bank. Over time, it evolved into what many now consider 'digital gold' because there's a limited supply — which helps protect its value over time.' The bigger shift, she believes, will come from creating new money that is no longer dependent on central banks. At Gnosis, she helped to create and launch a trust-based cryptocurrency called Circles, where users create and issue their own coins so that they can use them to barter with other trusted people in their community. As the community using Circles grows, so too does its power as a currency. Agency and autonomy are the values that drive Web3 Asked who she looks up to in terms of values, Friederike is reluctant to name specific role models, but said: 'I look up to people who can withstand the pressure or temptation to make money quickly.' In a space dominated by tech giants constantly looking for new ways to monetise and digital currencies creating hype without benefits, the focus on value creation rather than value extraction is certainly refreshing.
Crypto Insight
2 days ago
- Business
- Crypto Insight
Bitcoin's quantum countdown has already begun, Naoris CEO says
A hacker-turned-defender warns that most of the industry is asleep on crypto's existential threat: quantum computing. David Carvalho, CEO of post-quantum infrastructure firm Naoris Protocol, began hacking at the age of 13, experimenting with spam emails to attract job offers and gain attention from employers. Eventually, that curiosity shifted into formal cybersecurity work, where he used the same skills to defend systems instead of probing them. Today, he builds quantum-resilient systems for decentralized networks and claims that the cryptographic foundations of blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum are dangerously outdated. 'The cryptography behind nearly every chain is as weak as the rest of the world's cryptography,' Carvalho told Cointelegraph. 'Quantum is coming for it all, like meteors came for the dinosaurs.' Though Bitcoin and other blockchain developers often claim there's still plenty of time to adapt, the window may be closing fast. Efforts to implement quantum-resistant signatures are underway, but Carvalho said they're far from widespread or treated with the urgency the threat demands. The quantum threats harvesting Bitcoin data today For years, the idea that quantum computers could threaten Bitcoin felt like science fiction. But real-world developments suggest the threat is shifting from theory to early practice. Governments and tech giants are already preparing for what's known as the 'harvest now, decrypt later' model. US federal agencies, such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology, have warned since 2022 about the urgency of adopting quantum-resistant algorithms, while a White House memorandum prompted the NSA to advise government contractors to migrate to post-quantum cryptography by 2035. Today's quantum technology still falls short of cracking Bitcoin's SHA-256 hash function or the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) that secures crypto keys. But researchers like Carvalho argue that exponential breakthroughs — especially when paired with AI — could arrive abruptly. State-sponsored actors and cybercriminal groups are already collecting encrypted blockchain data now, hoping to decrypt it once quantum hardware catches up. 'The adversaries collecting encrypted blockchain data right now aren't waiting to attack today,' Carvalho said. 'They're building data sets for tomorrow. When the tech catches up, they'll unlock a decade of secrets in minutes.' Despite these warnings, most of the Bitcoin community doesn't see quantum computing as an immediate threat, and there's no widespread sense of panic. Bitcoin's current cryptography is still considered robust against existing quantum machines, and developers have begun exploring defenses like BIP-360, which proposes quantum-resistant addresses. Projects like Carvalho's Naoris Protocol are also working to help blockchains transition to post-quantum cryptographic standards. Quantum laced with AI is Bitcoin's real apocalypse While most conversations about quantum threats focus on brute-force attacks on cryptographic keys, Carvalho believes the true danger lies in the convergence of quantum computing and artificial intelligence. Together, he argues, they could enable stealthy, asymmetric attacks that don't overwhelm crypto systems with power but dismantle them with precision. 'Everyone's waiting for a countdown that won't come. You won't get a warning that a 10-year-old Bitcoin wallet has been cracked. You'll just see funds moved, and no one will be able to prove how or by whom,' he said. AI is already embedded in cybersecurity — used for intrusion detection, smart contract auditing and anomaly detection. But in the wrong hands, the same tools could be flipped. An AI attacker could automatically scan open-source wallets for edge-case bugs, simulate validator responses and adapt in real time to network behavior. If paired with a quantum computer capable of breaking elliptic-curve private keys, the result wouldn't be a loud breach, but what Carvalho calls a 'silent collapse.' 'This isn't just about stealing coins,' he said. 'It's about eroding trust invisibly. Entire blockchains could be compromised, governance systems spoofed, and no one would know who did it or how.' AI-driven tests have found vulnerabilities in cryptographic libraries that traditional tools overlook. Combine that with adversaries stockpiling encrypted data under the 'harvest now, decrypt later' model, and the groundwork for a systemic breach may already be in place. Carvalho warned that this could mark Bitcoin's true apocalypse if left unaddressed — not a dramatic livestreamed cracking of SHA-256 but a slow, silent erosion of the trust layers that hold the system together. Bitcoin can't defend against weak links For all the talk of Bitcoin's decentralization, its real-world infrastructure remains deeply centralized. Cloud platforms, mining pools and validator networks all present vulnerable chokepoints that quantum-capable adversaries could exploit. If a single cloud provider hosting hundreds of full nodes is compromised, the damage could ripple across the entire network, regardless of how decentralized the protocol itself claims to be. 'Decentralization is great on paper, but if everyone's routing through the same few backbones or trusting a handful of third-party APIs, the game's already lost.' The quantum threat could exploit the blind spots in the systems around it: centralized infrastructure, aging technology and trust assumptions. Some projects are already being prepared. Carvalho's Naoris, for example, draws on national security frameworks to build decentralized systems designed for a post-quantum world. Others are developing quantum-resistant rollups, new key formats and protocol upgrades through Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs) or leveraging inherently secure technologies like StarkWare's STARKs. The threat is approaching, but the response is also growing. What remains is whether the crypto ecosystem will act before it's too late. Source:
Indian Express
4 days ago
- Science
- Indian Express
OpenAI says its next big model can bring home Math Olympiad gold: A turning point?
The value of AI for most users today lies in its ability to generate coherent, conversational language by applying probability theory to massive datasets. However, a future where AI models drive advances in fields like cryptography and space exploration by solving complex, multi-step mathematical problems, is now one step closer to reality. OpenAI on Saturday, July 19, announced that its experimental AI reasoning model earned enough points on this year's International Math Olympiad (IMO) to win a gold medal. Started in 1959 in Romania, the IMO is widely considered to be one of the hardest, most prestigious math competitions in the world for high-school students. It is held over two days. Participants of the Olympiad take two exams, where they are expected to solve three math problems in each session within four-and-a-half hours. OpenAI's unreleased AI model took the IMO 2025 under these same conditions with no access to the internet or external tools. It read the official math problem statements and generated natural language proofs. The model solved five out of a total of six problems, achieving a gold medal-worthy score of 35/42, according to Alexander Wei, a member of OpenAI's technical staff. 'This underscores how fast AI has advanced in recent years. In 2021, my PhD advisor @JacobSteinhardthad me forecast AI math progress by July 2025. I predicted 30% on the MATH benchmark (and thought everyone else was too optimistic). Instead, we have IMO gold,' Wei wrote in a post on X. This isn't the first time a company has claimed that its AI model can match the performance of IMO gold medallists. Earlier this year, Google DeepMind introduced AlphaGeometry 2, a model specifically designed to solve complex geometry problems at a level comparable to a human Olympiad gold medallist. However, the performance of OpenAI's experimental model is seen as a step forward for general intelligence, not just task-specific AI systems. 'We reach this capability level not via narrow, task-specific methodology, but by breaking new ground in general-purpose reinforcement learning and test-time compute scaling,' Wei said. The model's success marks progress beyond traditional reinforcement learning (RL), which is a process used to train AI models through a system of clear, verifiable rewards and penalties. Instead, the model possibly demonstrates more flexible, general problem-solving abilities as it 'can craft intricate, watertight arguments at the level of human mathematicians.' Wei also acknowledged that 'IMO submissions are hard-to-verify, multi-page proofs.' Math proofs are made up of smaller, minor theorems called lemmas. OpenAI said that the AI-generated proofs to the problems were independently graded by three former IMO medalists, who finalised the model's score unanimously. However, Gary Marcus, a professor at New York University (NYU) and well-known critic of AI hype, pointed out that the results have not been independently verified by the organisers of the IMO. OpenAI's claims also come months after the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA launched a new initiative that looks to enlist researchers to find ways to conduct high-level mathematics research with an AI 'co-author.' In the past, DARPA was responsible for driving research that led to the creation of ARPANET, the precursor to the internet. An AI model that could reliably check proofs would save enormous amounts of time for mathematicians and help them be more creative. While some of these models might seem equipped to solve complex problems, they could also be prone to stumbling on simple questions like whether 9.11 is bigger than 9.9. Hence, they are said to have 'jagged intelligence', which is a term coined by OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy. Reacting to the model's gold medal-worthy IMO score, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, 'This is an LLM doing math and not a specific formal math system; it is part of our main push towards general intelligence.' However, the ChatGPT-maker does not plan on releasing the experimental research model at least for the next several months despite its math capabilities.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Bitcoin Traders Are Discussing BTC's Record High, but Quantum Computing Is Threatening the Math Behind It
A new report by Capgemini warns that quantum computing may break the widely used public-key cryptographic systems within the next decade — threatening everything from online banking to blockchain security. The report did not single out bitcoin (BTC), but focused on encryption systems such as RSA and ECC — the same cryptographic primitives that underpin crypto wallets, transaction signatures, and key security in most blockchains. Bitcoin relies on elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) to secure wallet addresses and validate ownership. But ECC, like RSA, is vulnerable to Shor's algorithm — a quantum computing method capable of cracking the discrete logarithm problem, the core math behind bitcoin's private keys. Capgemini's findings were based on a survey of 1,000 large organizations across 13 countries. Of those, 70% are either preparing for or actively implementing post-quantum cryptography (PQC) — a new class of algorithms designed to resist quantum attacks. Yet only 15% of respondents were considered 'quantum-safe champions,' and just 2% of cybersecurity budgets globally are allocated toward this transition. 'Every encrypted asset today could become tomorrow's breach,' the report warned, referring to so-called 'harvest now, decrypt later' attacks. These involve stockpiling encrypted data now in hopes that quantum computers can break it later — a real risk for any blockchain with exposed public keys. In bitcoin's case, that includes over 25% of all coins, which have revealed their public keys and would be immediately vulnerable if Q-Day — the hypothetical moment quantum machines can break modern encryption — arrives. Earlier this week, a draft proposal by Bitcoin developer Jameson Lopp and other researchers outlined a phased plan to freeze coins secured by legacy cryptography, including those in early pay-to-pubkey addresses like Satoshi Nakamoto's wallets. The idea is to push users toward quantum-resistant formats before attackers can sweep dormant funds unnoticed. 'This proposal is radically different from any in Bitcoin's history just as the threat posed by quantum computing is radically different from any other threat in Bitcoin's history,' the authors wrote, as CoinDesk reported. While the timeline for Q-Day remains uncertain, Capgemini's report notes that breakthroughs in quantum error correction, hardware design, and algorithm efficiency have accelerated over the past five years. In some scenarios, researchers believe a cryptographically relevant quantum computer (CRQC) could emerge before 2030. Meanwhile, governments are acting. The U.S. NSA plans to deprecate RSA and ECC by 2035, and NIST has finalized several PQC algorithms like Kyber and Dilithium for public use, Capgemini said. Cloudflare, Apple, and AWS have begun integrating them, but as of Friday no major blockchain network (i.e. with tokens in the top ten by market capitalization) has made such moves. As such, bitcoin's quantum debate remains theoretical and all steps being taken are preemptive. But as institutions, regulators, and tech giants prepare for a cryptographic reset, the math behind crypto's security may not hold forever.
Forbes
6 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
The Role Of Policy-Driven Network Security In The Age Of AI
Dave Krauthamer is the field CTO and a board member at QuSecure. Enterprises have traditionally embedded cryptographic choices deep within applications and hardware appliances. When vulnerabilities surface, whether due to newly discovered flaws in an algorithm or accelerated advances in attack capabilities, the remediation process is slow and fraught with operational risk. Companies often accept this risk because they have limited means to understand where the vulnerabilities are and how to remediate them. It's like having a modern vehicle that can't be upgraded with new software. Now, in the era of hyperconnectivity, where data traverses a complex network of public clouds, private clouds, edge nodes and user devices, enterprises face an increasingly urgent imperative: They must evolve their cryptographic posture from rigid, monolithic schemes toward a dynamic, policy-driven model. Crypto agility, the ability to seamlessly swap in, update or retire encryption algorithms and protocols, is no longer a technical luxury but a strategic necessity. By embedding agility within a policy framework, organizations can future-proof their networks against emerging threats and regulatory shifts while retaining the flexibility needed to drive innovation. Managing cryptographic risk via policy will give organizations the ability to upgrade broad swaths of their networks and comply with new compliance regimens with a click of a button. The Advantages Of Policy-Driven Cryptography An agile, policy-driven approach externalizes cryptographic decisions into a centralized repository of rules that govern algorithm selection, key lifecycles and enforcement contexts. Rather than rebuilding applications, administrators adjust policy parameters to achieve the desired results. As a result, the network's orchestration layer instantaneously enforces new directives across endpoints, data centers and edge gateways. This transition to policy-driven crypto agility carries important benefits. First, it mitigates exposure time. In a monolithic environment, a vulnerable cipher might linger in production for months or years as teams labor through testing cycles. A policy-based system can swap out large groups of cryptographic ciphers in seconds without disrupting service. Second, it simplifies compliance. Regulatory frameworks such as GDPR, PCI DSS, DORA and HIPAA increasingly mandate precise encryption standards and auditable key management practices. Embedding compliance rules into policy not only automates enforcement but also generates a verifiable audit trail, reducing both risk and administrative overhead. Perhaps the most compelling reason for policy-based crypto agility is the imperative to address existential threats organizations face today, and those on the horizon. Recent breakthroughs in AI have vastly augmented the capabilities of threat actors. Machine-learning-driven cryptanalysis tools today can scour large volumes of ciphertext, identify subtle patterns and accelerate brute-force attacks in ways unimaginable just a few years ago. In parallel, quantum computing continues its steady march toward practical maturity. While today's quantum machines remain limited, many experts anticipate that within the next decade, quantum processors will emerge capable of undermining widely used public-key algorithms, such as RSA and ECC. Enterprises that bake agility into their cryptographic fabric will be poised to integrate post-quantum algorithms—such as lattice-based, hash-based or code-based schemes—into production workflows without reengineering entire application stacks. How To Implement Policy-Based Cryptography Implementing policy-driven crypto agility requires a holistic, layered strategy. At its foundation lies a robust key-management system capable of generating, distributing, rotating and retiring keys per policy mandates. Above this sits an orchestration layer that interprets policy, interfaces with network controllers and communicates with endpoint agents. Policies themselves should be written to reflect the full spectrum of enterprise requirements, including data classification levels, geographical and jurisdictional constraints, device capabilities and performance considerations. For instance, traffic within a high-security vault may require a hybrid cryptosystem that combines classical and post-quantum primitives. In contrast, telemetry from resource-constrained IoT sensors may rely on lightweight symmetric ciphers to conserve battery life. Beyond the technical implementation, cultural and organizational alignment of policy-driven crypto agility is critical. Security, compliance and network operations teams must collaborate to define and continually refine policy sets. Automated testing and validation pipelines integrated into continuous integration and continuous delivery workflows ensure that policy changes do not introduce regressions or performance bottlenecks. Training programs help developers and operators understand how policy directives are translated into runtime behavior, thereby fostering confidence in the agility framework. Conclusion As enterprises embark on network modernization initiatives that embrace software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WAN), multi-cloud deployments and edge-native workloads, the value of policy-driven crypto agility will only intensify. It serves as a linchpin for resilience, enabling organizations to adapt swiftly to algorithmic deprecation, regulatory updates, and emergent threats. By abstracting cryptographic logic into adjustable policy layers, enterprises reduce operational friction and position themselves to harness the full promise of next-generation network architectures. Ultimately, the journey toward policy-driven crypto agility is a journey toward strategic flexibility. In a digital ecosystem where adversaries wield AI-enhanced attack platforms today, and quantum computing looms on the horizon, rigidity equates to vulnerability. Enterprises that adopt a policy-centric cryptographic model will not only survive but also thrive with the ability to pivot in real-time, satisfy stringent compliance mandates and maintain the trust of customers and partners. In the quest to secure tomorrow's networks, policy-driven crypto agility stands as both a compass and an engine, guiding and powering a secure, adaptable future. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
